


a knight, a potion maker, and a really long hike through a really dense forest

by wordsfordays



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: A sprinkling of angst, Alternate Universe - Fairy Tale, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, Knight!James, as a treat, i came up with this at 3 am, lily is also a potions maker, princess!lily, shes a baddie, uh idk what to say
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-23
Updated: 2020-07-31
Packaged: 2021-03-05 01:34:23
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,374
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25456297
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wordsfordays/pseuds/wordsfordays
Summary: All he had to do was deliver the princess to his client. Somehow, it always ended up being more complicated than that. James blamed no one but himself, and maybe Lily's smile. (It was a really nice smile).
Relationships: James Potter/Lily Evans Potter
Kudos: 6





	1. quests and towers

**Author's Note:**

> hey guys, not entirely sure how consistent my updates will be, I've plotted out all my chapters but now I just need to find the motivation to actually write lollllll anyway  
> I'm hoping weekly? but honestly who knows

“Rescue me?” the princess tucked her unruly hair behind her ear while she contemplated the man in front of her tower. The scarlet lock sprang free almost immediately and swung forward, once again obscuring her face. With a huff, she tucked it behind her ear again, this time pinning into place more securely. The man on the ground below tried and failed to hide a smile, something that did not escape the princess's notice. “What on earth would you want to do that for?”

“Whatever do you mean, milady?”

“I haven’t a dowry or reward of any sort. The creature keeping me has no hoard. I’m not even a very well known princess.” she folded her arms across her chest and nodded once, sharply, as if that settled the matter. 

The man below her laughed once, and then, realizing she was serious, quickly sobered up. “Princess, I’m not here because I think there’s a reward. I was sent here by my employer to bring you to her. She’s paying me for this.”

The princess’s brows drew together in confusion, her mouth pursing as she tried to put together whether or not this man could be believed. “It really doesn’t matter why you’re here. I don’t know who you are, and as I prefer being alive, I think I’ll stay up here, where I’m warm and safe.”

The man below smiled brightly up at her, undeterred by her statement. “If that’s all it’ll take, why didn’t you tell me in the beginning? I’m James Potter, knight to the kingdom of Hogwarts. Now that you know who I am, can I rescue you yet?”

“Well, I mean, that’s not exactly a background check, is it?”

James raised an eyebrow. “Um...I mean I guess I can give you my references if that will make you happier?”

“Yes, quite. That is exactly what I meant, none of this ‘name’ business.” She disappeared from the window, leaving James to wonder where she had gone.

“Uhhhh, milady? Princess? Where did you-”

He was stopped by the Princess barreling out of a door he had previously not noticed, positioned nicely at the base of the tower. He stared at it. It swung on its hinges innocuously back. He stared harder. “Milady? Why does your tower door not have a lock?”

“A lock? Why would I need a lock?” She said, snorting with derision. “My roommate can scare away anyone I don’t like. Now, where were the references you were going to show me?”

James snapped his jaw shut and reached into his satchel, pulling out a bundle of papers, messily piled together. The Princess gave the pile a look of great disdain before gingerly reaching out to grip the bunch. 

James felt the urge to apologize for the state of his papers. “So sorry, milady, it’s only, well, I just got permission to apply for a quest with the searching employers and I had to get my references together rather quickly,” he rambled. “Well, they were good enough for me to be hired to rescue you in any case, but anyway, I’m sure you can look through them yourself, and I know you said names aren’t what you’re interested in, but uh, what was your name again? I don’t think you’ve mentioned it, and it’s only, my employer, she didn’t tell me your name, only that she needed your potion expertise rather desperately, as apparently you can make potions? And I know I keep saying ‘rescue you’, but I guess it’s more like, show you other job options? In case you’re trapped in this tower?” His voice rose at the end of this sentence, giving it a questionable inflection. She nodded, though James wasn’t sure which of his questions she was answering at this point. Any of them? None of them? “Sorry, I guess I need to be more concise. What, exactly, is your name? And also, to add to that, are you actually a potion maker? Also, are you trapped?” As he finished his questions, James looked more closely at the Princess he was supposed to be rescuing? Employing? He groaned internally, mentally banging his head on a wall. Why had he accepted a quest with such vague terms? Why? 

Throughout his internal conflict, the Princess had been continuing to page through the documents, he had given her, nodding (in approval? He hoped approval.) every once in a while. “Are you done?” she said, looking up, and handing him back his references, which he stuck back in his satchel. 

“W-what?”

“Done with your internal angst fest. My name is Lily, please don’t call me princess, I left that sort of thing behind a long time ago. And yes, I am a potions maker. Also, no, I am not trapped, the gryphon and I are roommates.”

James looked closely at her again, noting the bare feet, frayed cloak hem, and general air of youth Lily seemed to exude. “Um, Lily? Beg my pardon, but you...you look like you’re my age. And I mean. I’m seventeen. This is my first quest.” He brought his hand up and ran it through his hair nervously as he continued to ramble. “How could you have left ‘that life’ behind so long ago if you’re just a teenager too?”

She scoffed. “Just a teenager? I can do anything an adult could!”

“Well, I mean, you can’t like, get married? Or own land? I think? I mean I don’t exactly know the law...but that’s not my point! My point is what do you even mean by ‘long ago’?”

Lily looked a bit shifty at that question, and James narrowed his eyes. “Well, I mean,” she started, a bit defensively in his opinion. “I left about a week ago if we’re talking about physical time (which is like the most boring kind of time to talk about anyway!) but if we’re talking about like, my mental state, I have put that time in my life looooooong behind me, okay, so technically it is a long time ago. For me. In my head.”

Throughout this entire confusing explanation, James felt his headache growing and patience shortening. “Wait, so are you even a potions maker?”

“Yes! I’ve studied potions under my castle’s potion master since I was, I dunno, five years old?”

“And now you’re…?”

“Sixteen,” she said defensively, “But I’ll be seventeen in a few months, so you’re not even that much older than me, and anyway, that’s eleven years of potion experience! And!” She said, suddenly looking victorious, “You’re not even my employer! So just! Butt out!”

“Fine!” James said, throwing up his hands in exasperation. “So does this mean you’re coming with me? To your new job?”

Lily looked hesitant all of a sudden. “What does your client even want a potion master for? You never said.” 

“Uhm, I guess, like, to do whatever potion makers do?”

“You don’t even know!” Lily said, glaring at him (why do we keep going back to this, he wonders).

“Look, it didn’t say in my job description! It just said that this lady, Minerva McGonagall, is looking for a potions master, and gave me your location. Which, honestly, now that you’ve mentioned you’ve only lived here a week, is a bit weird. Also, going back to your living situation, what do you mean the gryphon is your roommate?”   
“It’s a mutually beneficial arrangement, I make her potions, and she drives away annoying knights that are always banging around in their loud armor to ‘rescue me’ when they really mean ‘marry me and trap me that way’.”

“Oh,” he said. “I see. Is that why you said the gryphon was keeping you when I called up to you? Because you thought I was one of those knights?”

“Yes, yes, but you’re not, you seem to be hiring me instead, and that is a much more favorable prospect than marriage, honestly, even if you don’t know exactly why you’re hiring me or what you’re hiring me for. It’s a bit of an adventure, isn’t it?” At this prospect, she looked excited, and James felt cheered by the fact that she seemed to at least be in for a good adventure on the way to (steady?) employment. 

“Well, alright then, if you’re interested in the job, my only job left is to deliver you to it, so let’s hop to that, yes?”

At the mention of actually leaving the tower, she looked hesitant. “Well, I suppose. Alright. I guess I better go pack, and let Maurice know.”

“Maurice?”

“My roommate?”

“Right, of course, the gryphon. Well, go on then.” He shooed her back into the tower and slumped up against the bottom, resting on one of the patches of bushy grass that circled the tower. With Lily and her bright hair and her sparkling eyes out of his view, he focused back on the landscape around the tower. Not bad, for a supposed ‘tower of imprisonment’ as his job description listed it. A burbling creek ran past the western side of the tower, heading south into the forest he had crossed to get to the tower in the first place. He wasn’t exactly keen to go back into the forest, but it was the fastest route back to Hogsmeade where his client awaited. 

The forest stretched to the east as far as the eye could see, while on the west it went on for a bit before being cut off by the coastal range. To the north was the Land of Lakes, and a few other Princess towers dotted the immediate area around Lily’s tower. She was right, he had no idea what kingdom she was from, but he also wasn’t so sure about her leaving it all behind so fast. Something must have happened to be the catalyst of her leaving, and maybe it was nosy, but he really wanted to find out what it was. 

“Done daydreaming, Potter? We’ve got work to do! Forests to cross! Potions to make!”

He scrambled to his feet, a little annoyed by how easily she snuck up on him. “Yes to the first two, but we won’t be making any potions,” he informed her as they set off. “That’s a you thing.”

“Nonsense!” she said. “It’s the best way to bond with new friends, which we are now since we have to take a trip together. Where are we going, exactly?” She asked, hitching her bag up on her shoulder as it clanked (potions equipment, he inferred). 

“Hogsmeade! The capital of the kingdom you’re in right now!” He exclaimed, brushing off the warm feeling of her claiming him as her friend. “Now move it! No princess treatment for you, since you’ve left it behind and all.”

She rolled her eyes, but kept pace with him as she began to badger him with more questions about the forest and the capital beyond. 


	2. forests and songs

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> okay so it's been only a little longer than a week! proud of me  
> enjoy yall

Lily flopped against a tree dramatically, swiping her cloak over her face and wiping away the sweat that had accumulated through the day. James was definitely not noticing how her eyes sparkled with exertion from the hike, or how the sun peeking through the branches above had dappled her skin with more freckles than she had had before. No, he was not noticing those things at all, he told himself furiously as he worked to set up camp.

“Woah there hot stuff, what’s got you so worked up?”

“What? No. I’m not worked up. Just. Setting up camp! Getting things done!” he jolted up from where he had been laying out their bedrolls. Lily raised an eyebrow and pushed herself to her feet. 

“Whatever. I’m gonna go get some kindling for a fire. Can you get out the food supplies?”

“Yeah, sure!” he said as she mock saluted him and wandered off into the trees. He slapped a hand to his face and dragged it down. “‘Yeah, sure!’ okay sure James, go ahead and just sound more eager why don’t you!” he mumbled to himself as he pulled out the food from where he had stored it in his satchel. 

By the time Lily made her way back from gathering fuel James had laid out their dinner. “I’m sorry it’s not much, but most quest supplies are usually like this,” he said, frowning down at the bread and cheese they were going to have for the next few days.

“No worries,” Lily smiled, drawing two apples from the inside of her cloak. “Look what I found!”

“Score!” James smiled back, feeling his cheeks heat up with her smile. She looked away when he did, and there was a moment of awkward silence before Lily broke it as she started the fire. 

When she drew back from the burgeoning flames, her brow was furrowed, like she was trying to parse something out for herself. James wondered what it could be.

“So-” she started, before lapsing back into silence and poking at the fire with a stick.

“So?” James prompted, and took a bite of his apple.

“Well, it’s just. You don’t owe me anything, of course, but. What brought you here? What's your story?” 

Oh. This wasn’t as bad as James had been expecting. Not that he had been expecting anything bad, of course, but she had looked a little too contemplative to just be asking about his personal background. 

“Well, I guess I’ve wanted to be a knight since I was a kid. I mean, I don’t exactly need to work, I have a bit of inheritance,” he said sheepishly. “But I don’t really see that as mine. I want to work, I don’t like just sitting around.”

She nodded as if that made sense to her. He supposed it must: she had left being a princess to be a potion maker for gryphon. 

“So, anyway, last year I started with minor quests like, you know, serving someone divorce papers or that sort of thing. It wasn’t the most pleasant work, but I did it.”

At this, Lily looked a bit amused and lost some of the stiffness in her posture, slumping back onto the bedroll he had set up for her and picking at her dinner. 

“This is my first real quest. On the journey here I was pretty nervous, but you’re very sensible for a princess, and good company besides.” 

“Hang on, what do you mean ‘sensible for a princess’?”

James ruffled his hair nervously in the face of Lily’s (beautiful, intimidating) glare. “Um, well, I just, er, princesses aren’t usually sensible?” His voice rose at the end of his sentence, and Lily smirked.

“Are you asking me, or telling me?”

“Telling you?” damn inflection again. “Telling you.”

She rolled her eyes at this (fondly? He hoped it was fondly). “James, how many princesses have you met?”

“Well. One.”

“And tell me,” she said, leaning closer (could she see how red his cheeks were? Did the growing darkness mask it enough?) “How sensible is this one princess you’ve met?”

“Honestly?” she nodded, raising an eyebrow. “You’re not very sensible. You’ve run away from home with no plan, and now you’re going off with a guy you don’t know beyond my personal references to find employment elsewhere. I’m not saying it’s a bad thing you’re not sensible since we wouldn’t’ve met if you were but-”

He was cut off by a snort of laughter. “Oh my god,” Lily said, “Okay, fine I guess I’m not all that sensible, but there are plenty of sensible princesses out there.” When he raised an eyebrow at that she added, “Just take my word for it, okay? And,” she said, becoming more serious, “I had my own reasons for wanting to leave.”

James was curious, he’d admit, but it didn’t seem like Lily was interested in sharing much beyond that. She’d curled up a little, and her face was closed off. He flopped back on his bedroll and tried to alleviate the new tension. “I bet you set the royal ballroom on fire with a potion gone wrong. You’re on the lamb from the government!”

She cracked a smile. “Yeah, on the run from my own government? That’s the best you’ve got, huh?”

He spent the rest of the evening coming up with even more ridiculous reasons Lily would’ve left home, trying to see how often he could get her (carefree, fun) laugh to escape. As he drifted off that night on a bedroll a few paces from Lily, the only thing he could think of was the sparkle in her eyes when he had succeeded.

%%%

The next morning, James woke slowly, roused by the chirping of the birds above him. He stretched and rolled over, facing Lily. He smiled sleepily at her acute case of bedhead, before rolling over-

-and onto the ground. “Oof,” he groaned. Those bedrolls were always so much thinner than he expected, no matter how often he slept on one. He pushed himself to his feet, rubbing his eyes and running a hand through his hair, glancing around the camp as he did. The fire had burned itself out, but it would still be better to throw some dirt over it before they left. Besides that, they just had their bedrolls to contend with, and those would just be rolled up and stuffed away into their bags. James stretched, his gaze coming to rest on Lily. Well, her hair, anyway. It seemed like in the night she had bundled up until only the top of her head was showing. James smiled at that. It felt like everything she did was endearing, even when it shouldn’t have been. He tried to shake himself out of it. 

“You don’t know if she likes you back, you don’t know if you’ll ever see her again after this,” he began listing reasons to himself under his breath as he went about tidying camp, trying to avoid making too much noise as he did. “And most of all, you don’t even know her. Well,” he argued back, (with himself, this had to be a sign of insanity), “I kind of know her. I know that she’s brave, and a hard worker, and smart, even if she isn’t very sensible.”

“Who isn’t sensible?” came a sleepy voice from the pile of blankets that had consumed Lily. 

He jumped about half a foot in the air. “Oh, um, nobody?” James said, his voice rising in pitch. Lily’s head peeked out from her blankets enough to show her raised brow. “Nobody,” he said again, lowering the pitch. _ Damn, that was too low _ . 

“Okay, don’t tell,” Lily said, emerging fully from her blanket cocoon. “I’m going to go wash off in that creek we saw yesterday. I feel all grimey.” She looked at him funny, confirming that he was probably blushing at this point,  _ dammit _ , and moved to gather her cloak from the pile of blankets. 

“Okay, sounds good, I’ll break camp. Be back soon, okay?”

“Yeah, I shouldn’t be too long, don’t worry.” With that, she left the clearing.

James flopped back onto the ground and scrubbed a hand through his hair. “Be professional James, lovesick puppy is not a good look on you, no it is not.” 

He rolled onto his stomach and watched a caterpillar inch across the ground in front of him. The wind whistled quietly through the trees, not quite blocking out the sound of…”Is someone torturing a cat?” James pushed himself to his feet and tried to figure out where the noise was coming from. He concentrated, and within the screeching made out a few words. “That’s a...drinking song?” He looked about confusedly before realization dawned on his face. “Lily!” He groaned, burying his face in his hands.  _ How is she even more endearing now?  _

When Lily made her way back to the clearing about ten minutes later, James had packed up camp and was watching the caterpillar spin itself a cocoon. 

“Let’s head out!” Lily shouted, then ruffled his hair and blushed before hurrying back out of the clearing.

James stared after her. He hadn’t imagined the blush, had he? No, she had really blushed. A smile spread across his face. “Lily, wait up, I’m coming!” He scrambled to his feet.  _ I have a chance. I have a chance! _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> okay so maybe i have a crush on lily evans potter but shes honestly a badass so who wouldn't

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for reading!


End file.
